Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 The emptiness of English public policy
- 2 Where it all begins: the tasks for Education and others
- 3 Governance change in England
- 4 Middle tier functioning, standards, places and school ecosystems
- 5 But society won’t wait: the communities around the school and the role of local government
- 6 More muddle: English Education’s unstable assemblage
- 7 Wider parallels: limitations at the top
- 8 The construction of central governments that find it all too difficult
- 9 Re-democratising and re-politicising
- 10 Conclusion: Beginning to return English schooling to the public service
- Appendix
- Notes
- References
- Index
5 - But society won’t wait: the communities around the school and the role of local government
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 The emptiness of English public policy
- 2 Where it all begins: the tasks for Education and others
- 3 Governance change in England
- 4 Middle tier functioning, standards, places and school ecosystems
- 5 But society won’t wait: the communities around the school and the role of local government
- 6 More muddle: English Education’s unstable assemblage
- 7 Wider parallels: limitations at the top
- 8 The construction of central governments that find it all too difficult
- 9 Re-democratising and re-politicising
- 10 Conclusion: Beginning to return English schooling to the public service
- Appendix
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
When this research was commenced … English schooling was framed within a construct of education developed through the promotion of neoliberal and neoconservative approaches to public services, a legacy of the New Right; leaders and practitioners found themselves working in and with schools set in competition with each other. This was then the accepted paradigm … But a historical account … demonstrates that this was not always the case. Schooling was embedded within local democratic processes for over 80 years prior to the 1988 Education Act and it involved much more than teaching within the classroom. (Doug Martin, 2016: 9)
Introduction
In this chapter, I shift tack slightly first to consider some of the possibilities for schools and their communities. This is so that schools can be seen to provide more than what could be considered as just a technical offer or service analogous to that provided by the local branch of a national supermarket. This latter seems an especially suitable comparison in those large multi-academy trusts (MATs) that have no Local Governing Bodies (LGBs) and therefore little or no concept of or immediacy with their schools.
I have argued that this is not good enough in a democracy, but I will further argue that to change it Education needs to be returned to the public service. This does involve looking back first to enable looking forward in the final chapters of the book, but also to look at the possibilities within current structures. Local government, explored in the second half the chapter, provides the most fertile ground I argue, but changes of behaviour will also be required of central government officials in particular. Above all else, in addition to schools being involved with their communities, there needs to be some open public body that has a detailed overview of the communities they serve, with access to the immediacy needed to help them look to the future and develop. Central government has failed and continues to fail miserably on all these counts, without understanding it has done so.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Schooling in a DemocracyReturning Education to the Public Service, pp. 48 - 62Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023